NASCAR Cup

Dover: Ken Schrader preview

Ken Schrader Notes, Quotes: MBNAAmerica 400 'Best concrete track on the circuit' Coming off a strong top-10 finish at Lowe's Motor Speedway, Ken Schrader and the ...

Published: Jun 3, 2005, 9:50 AM

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Ken Schrader Notes, Quotes: MBNAAmerica 400
'Best concrete track on the circuit'

Coming off a strong top-10 finish at Lowe's Motor Speedway, Ken Schrader and the #49 Schwan's Home Service Dodge head to the one-mile Dover (Del.) International Raceway this week for Sunday's MBNA America 400, the 13th race of the 2005 NASCAR Nextel Cup season.

Driver of the #49 Schwan's Home Service Dodge, Schrader is a native of Fenton, Mo. The busiest driver in major league motorsports, Schrader has raced and continues to race on virtually every type of speedway in virtually every type of race car. Schrader continues a winning career with BAM Racing, which fields the Schwan's Home Service team.

The team is owned by Beth Ann and Tony Morgenthau, investors from Coral Gables, Fla. Ms. Morgenthau, whose initials make up the name of the team -- BAM Racing -- is the only female car owner in motorsports to become involved without prior family connections. General manager Eddie Jones is a veteran of the NASCAR Nextel Cup wars, enjoying a championship career as a crew chief, mechanic and team leader. Crew chief David Hyder has over 20 years of racing experience both driving and as a chief mechanic.

The thoughts of Schwan's Home Service Dodge driver Ken Schrader heading into Dover:

"Dover is definitely a unique race track. It's fast, extremely fast for a one-mile racetrack. You don't really understand how fast you're going until you get sideways, and then you figure it really fast. But, not fast enough to keep from hitting the wall-- and if you hit the wall at Dover, you're going to feel it. You always feel it, but at Dover, there's no such thing as a 'soft' hit.

"Because of that, Dover can be a tough race track. I know Darlington's got that slogan, but Dover's not far behind. It's narrow, and when you come off the turns, it becomes real narrow. You're always running through the turns on the edge, and it only takes a little nudge and you'll be backing it in the wall big-time. It's not that easy to do at Dover, but if you can get your car to stick in the center, you can make up a lot of ground in a hurry.

"The concrete surface makes it pretty unique, considering there's only one other track on the circuit that has an entire concrete racing surface. It may look like a big Bristol, but it's not. First, you can actually run side-by-side at Dover, not the case at Bristol. So, in my opinion, that makes Dover the best concrete track on the circuit. It's longer and doesn't have near the banking. But, like Bristol it does have really quick turns, and it's awfully hard to save it once you get sideways.

"You really come up out of a hole when you exit the turns at Dover. It's one of the blindest turns on the circuit and if someone gets sideways at the exit of the turn, the guys behind are just along for the ride. Hopefully, your spotter can give you some direction on which way to aim through the smoke. We saw last year what happens when someone gets sideways coming off of two. It stacked up the whole field, and sent a lot of guys home with wrecked racecars.

"We've had some bad luck at Dover of late, but we know how to get around here. We've enjoyed some serious success including a win there over the years, and it's really one of the tracks that I look forward to running each year.

"It also helps that we've been improving each week. You can really feel the momentum with this Schwan's team. We've had some really good runs over the past month or so and you can feel the momentum building. We're looking forward to Dover and think we're bringing a good car here-- should be a good weekend."

-www.schraderracing.com

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